Eerie Eid quiet coming to an end

Thursday in Amman was pretty busy, as in Madaba, as the final iftar of Ramadan was that night, and the Eid itself was Friday. I happened to still be up at midnight on Thursday and the University Street down below ACOR was full of traffic - I guess families who had had their iftar, and then packed the suitcases and kids in the car to drive down to Aqaba or the Dead Sea for the holidays. Apparently you couldn't get a room at Aqaba. So Friday in the day was very quiet but we expected things to start moving again for Saturday and Sunday - but no, all Amman was very quiet. Perhaps lots of people had gone away for the holidays, but apart from the bigger supermarkets and some isolated shops, Amman has been really sleepy. Most unusual. It has made taxi trips much cheaper and it is nearly a pleasure driving oneself - no death defying feats needed to negotiate the bigger circles.

ACOR itself has been very empty - the dig teams have gone home and so have the language schools.
So this was my breakfast on Eid Friday, all by myself.

(note the good Aussie Sanitarium - only $7.50 a packet!)

This picture is cheating really - there are a small bunch of nice people here and it is pleasant not to have doors banging all hours as the language school kids enjoy being away from home. A Polish Egyptologist, an Italian/American conservator, a Romanian studying tourism in NZ and even a couple of straightforward American archaeologists.
Rose Espinola, another Aussie on the same fellowship as me, arrived Friday too. She's here to do some Masters research on discriminatory laws regarding women's citizenship, spent a year here 2 years ago learning Arabic, and has some cousins living nearby. So I'm hoping she'll be my intro into non-archaeology Jordan. We've already discussed going to a soccer match, as the league here kicked off last week. On that note, I can't believe the Swans lost by less than a goal!!!